Mafia underboss nicknamed 'The Claw' cries poverty and reveals he lives on food stamps in a trailer
By SNEJANA FARBEROV
January 10, 2013

Benjamin ‘The Claw’ Castellazzo had spent decades in the racketeering business on behalf of the notorious Colombo family, but apparently the elderly Mafioso was not very good at his job.

In a desperate bid to reduce his sentence on extortion charges, the once-powerful Mafia underboss revealed that he has been living in a New Jersey trailer park, unlike most of his free-spending ‘colleagues’ in the business, and his wife has been receiving food stamps.

Castellazzo, 75, was arrested as part of a historic bust that netted more than 100 suspected Mafia operatives from New York's major crime families.


Out of luck: Benjamin 'The Claw' Castellazzo, the underboss for the Colombo crime family, faces eight years in prison after being arrested last year on extortion charges in a massive FBI raid


Poor house: Castellazzo appealed to the judge to reduce his sentence, writing that he has been living in a small trailer similar to the one pictured in New Jersey

Later this month, he is expected to be sentenced to eight years in prison for extorting money from the La Quila construction company in Brooklyn and The Square pizza parlor in Staten Island.

The 75-year-old criminal mastermind filed court documents shedding light on his life of hardship in the humble Eagleswood Village trailer park in West Creek, New Jersey, the New York Daily News reported.

'I have reflected on my life during the past two years… I am not proud of the life I have led.' he wrote, adding that his greatest wish is to live out his days with his wife, children and grandchildren - the only 'family' he cares about.

Castellazzo's modest mobile home comes with an eat-in kitchen and a small garden outside - a far cry from the garish McMansions that Mafia capos had built for themselves in Brooklyn and Staten Island.

Colombo family mafia boss Carmine ‘The snake’ Persico may have spent the past quarter of a century federal prison, but his wife has been living the good life in a sprawling red-brick mansion in Dyker Height, Brooklyn.


Busted: The Colombo No. 2 operative was arrested for extorting money from The Square pizza eatery in Staten Island, among other businesses

Another high-ranking Mafia boss, Anthony 'Gaspipe' Casso used to live in an over-the-top waterfront mansion in Mill Basin before moving into a far more austere penitentiary facility.

The lavish but ill-fated home's most recent tenant, disgraced State Sen. Carl Kruger, followed in Casso's footsteps when he pleaded guilty to corruption charges last April.

Meanwhile, the ailing Castellazzo has been living in a retirement community where, according to real estate sites like Zillow, a two-bedroom mobile home sells for about $40,000, or can be rented for $1,000 a month.

Castellazzo was among the 127 suspects from New York's notorious five Mafia families who were arrested in January 2011 in a series of targeted FBI raids described as the biggest crackdown on organized crime in U.S. history.

Along with Castellazzo, officials busted fellow Colombo family operative Andrew Russo, and Bartolemeo Vernace and Joseph Corozzo from the Gambino family.

As the No. 2 in the Colombo hierarchy, it alleged it was Castellazzo's responsibility was to collect money from businesses seeking protection, which explains his telling nickname, 'The Claw.'


Lavish lifestyle: The wife of jailed Colombo family mafia boss Carmine 'The Snake' Persico resides in this palatial home in Brooklyn


Cursed mansion: The two previous owners of this garish estate in Brooklyn, including mob boss Anthony Casso and disgraced State Sen. Carl Kruger, ended up in prison

The Colombo crime family is the youngest of the 'Five Families', originally formed in 1928 by Joseph 'The Olive Oil King' Profaci.

The family has endured three family wars over the years - the second of which brought the family under the power of Joseph 'Joe C' Colombo.

The third war erupted in 1991 when member Joseph Orena undermined Carmine Persico who was in prison - the family split into two separate factions.

Twelve family members were killed in the in-fighting and the family never fully came back to prominence.

The family recently turned to Ralph DeLeo to run the family for imprisoned Persico.

Two years ago several members of the Colombo family were indicted on multiple racketeering charges and three murders dating back to the family wars.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...ps-trailer.html

benji is a notoriously bad gambler.im suprised he 'is what he is'.

Degenerate gambler, still it's crazy to see an underboss living like that, the Colombo's are in real bad shape.

Persico's wife seems like she is doing just fine.

Good post Ivy.

the snakes mansion in brroklyn must be worth 4 5 million wow nice. that family rich i wonder what michael persico house is like they also got a huge house upstate horses and shit they did good starting all the wars.

is Benjamin Castellazzo shelved? No way he's living in a trailer if he's active

No, he's just in prison. It's certainly not impossible for a high level mob guy to be hurting financially but a lot of these guys claim to be broke when they're not.

why is it saying he's living in a trailer then if he's in prison

Sorry, he was in jail when first charged but he's been out while awaiting sentencing. He's done nothing to warrant being shelved.

would you know if he had?

I doubt he has been shelved he is a brutal gambler but nothing that would warrant him being shelved. Remember 50% of these guys love to gamble and suck at it.

Not unless it was reported by trustworthy sources, i.e. guys like Capeci or Raab, or the feds.

my point exactly.

Makes me wonder.. Can an umderboss of one of the 5 families really be that fucking broke?? If so jesus this guy must have some vices.. Always hard to tell cause it seems like the norm when these guys get popped to all bitch and moan about how broke they are when they're really sitting on a lot of cash.. So which one is it? Is he bullshitting or is he really the biggest brokester of all time?

he is the 'under' and hes shaking down guys himself.i would say thats a dead give away.

The thing is, you're no different. You just don't want to admit it. We all get the majority of our information from the same sources - the news or the feds. Some posters in the forums may be from "the neighborhood," know a guy who knows a guy, and hear things "on the street" from time to time. But most of these posters routinely abuse and exaggerate their level of knowledge. They act like they're privy to the inner workings of the Mafia simply because of their zip code. It's bullshit and it's already been done by several before you. In other words, you're too late. This scam has been done already.

True gamms.. An underboss out doing shakedowms is a dead give awayt he's broke.. .. So is the claw currently in prison serving 8 years? And does he still hold underboss position

no not at all,and ass holes like you are the reasons i dont post much here at all.

heres something,whos the under right now?donnie? no. hes in florida when hes not in californa. billy?no? who? how the fuck would you know?you cant find this shit on the internet!and wont! you will never be told any thing of any value because you put all your emphisis on 'sources'. so [with apologies to the board], go fuck your self. im in no mood to entertain this shit.if you want to still argue with me,sens me a message. if you wish to continue this convorsation,thats fine we can have a polite conversation,feel free. but im done on this thread,and will not respond further.

For the record, Castellazzo was a captain/acting underboss. The official underboss of the family is Sonny Franzese.

See my post above. You can curse at me all you want. I've seen the same from other bullshitters before. Yaaaaawn.

Come on Ivy give gamms a little bit of credit. It's easy to spot a bullshitter from someone like "imamobguy". He isn't one. You shouldn't take everything he says with a grain of salt.

Hate to even comment on this.. But ivy you're wrong on this. I'm sure you've seen 100 fake people on here acting like they're have all the info cause they grew up in a certain neighborhood.. Bbut gamms isn't one of them. He knows more than any internet researcher ever will..you can say I'm wrong and I'm an idiot too but I know something you dont and I'm not going to argue its retarded.. Let's get back on topic

Sonny Franzese got love him what is he like 94. He looks better then some 50 year olds I know.

The 100% bullshitters are easily detectable by most. The real problems come from those who do know some things, maybe know some people, etc. but they routinely exaggerate their level of knowledge and insight. I've seen it over and over again. Once their "rep" gets established on a forum, and they're known as a legit local guy, they go to town by giving their 2 cents on anything and everything and they're not supposed to be questioned or debated with because of their "rep." If these posters were 100% honest, and didn't go beyond the bounds of what they really know, there would be no problem. But, with very few exceptions, they all go beyond those bounds. They can't help it. Their egos just take over.

And it's true what I said before. Even the most hooked in poster on these forums gets most of his information from the same sources as the rest of us - the news, feds, etc. Anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional.

Gamms didn't exactly help his case when he also claimed, along with our currently suspended resident Fat Tony fan, that Salerno was the real boss.

See is gamms isn't like that Ivy. He doesn't claim to know anything he doesn't know about but he offers what he can. There was a time when you weren't here when all we got was kids from Scotland saying they were former associates for the Lucchese Family and talking trash (Dicknose has gone to town). It's good to have a knowledgable street poster. Gamms and EHI are too very reliable posters.

I'm gone for a while and, when I come back, gamms is supposed to be the resident insider for the board. OK.

Right off the bat he claims that Fat Tony was the real boss. Strike one.

Unless I'm misunderstanding him, he's also insinuated that he doesn't get most of his info from the same sources as everybody does. Strike two.

He also gets very heated and defensive if I question or disagree with him, even if I have plenty of evidence to support what I'm saying. Strike two-and-a-half.

He asked me who was the current "under" for the Colombos. As far as the official information available right now, it's still the incarcerated Sonny Franzese. And the current acting underboss is Dominic Montemarano, according to the feds.

But he appears to be insinuating it's somebody else. How about he tells us who it is, despite what the feds have already said, and if times proves him to be right, he'll get the credit.

First off. Eastharlem, if you knew who he was.. Probably has the best source possible when it comes to the fat tony chin situatuion. That's a fact.

Two- I don't think gamms gets any information off of the internet of the fbi files or any of that other shit.

Let's just stop now I know I hate reading threads full of stupid back and forth bullshit.. Sorry for even giving my 2cents on here but I feel like it was needed.

Well I can't speak for him nor validate what he says is true. But I choose to believe what he says, because it just doesn't sound made up, quite the contrary. You're one of the best posters we have Ivy, and a lot of people are con artists. But I firmly believe that gamms isn't one of them. I'll leave it at that